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Gamars Super Disk FC-301 disk drive failure

 
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TDXIII



Joined: 23 Jun 2020
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 1:29 pm    Post subject: Gamars Super Disk FC-301 disk drive failure Reply with quote

A few years ago I picked up this Super Disk cheap as it had a failed floppy disk drive.

After I tested it I confirmed that the drive had failed. However after replacing the drive, with a old Matsushita floppy drive I had lying around, the Super Disk has never quite worked right.

The Super Disk can make copies of games with a success rate of about 80%, however these disk copies can only be read in any way by the Super Disk itself. Any attempt to read these disks in a Windows or DOS machine results in a message saying no disk was detected or the disk is unformatted. If a disk is formatted in a Windows machine it can be written to by the Super Disk, however this results in the same error messages.

As pictured I have a 9V power supply as recommended by the manual. Using this supply removes any flickering when the floppy disk drive's stepper motor is active. At one point, with help from the 9V supply, I was able to make 2 disk copies that Windows was able to recognize and read off of. I never changed my method for making these disks, as it seems the stars just aligned.

When attempting to write disks for use in the Super Disk the results were seemingly random. Most attempts resulted in a completely unrecognized disk, some attempts were recognized but only made it about 40% through the loading process.

On a side note does anyone know about upgrading the ram on these units? There is 32mb on board with 2 unpopulated DRAM areas on the board. The software and manual also both make mention of up to 128mb of DRAM, however I have only ever seen mention of the green version of my unit with 64mb.

Another feature mentioned is PC link. From the one image I found it appears that a parallel card can be inserted in the cartridge slot to allow for use of a disc drive enclosure and PC link. I was wondering if another copier's parallel card could be used in place of the Gamars accessory.

As pictured the only modifications made to this unit was the removal of a leaking battery, the replacement of a blown cap (failed mid way through some of my testing) and the addition of the matsushita floppy disk drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

https://imgur.com/a/MXxjmA7

https://imgur.com/a/LxWdmu1

https://imgur.com/a/4zhkL0j

https://imgur.com/a/MDJFbdJ

https://imgur.com/a/GAi3QSh

https://imgur.com/a/H7YXVVW
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Mystic_Merlin



Joined: 15 Oct 2007
Posts: 496
Location: Bangkok

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:45 am    Post subject: Re: Gamars Super Disk FC-301 disk drive failure Reply with quote

TDXIII wrote:
A few years ago I picked up this Super Disk cheap as it had a failed floppy disk drive.

After I tested it I confirmed that the drive had failed. However after replacing the drive, with a old Matsushita floppy drive I had lying around, the Super Disk has never quite worked right.

The Super Disk can make copies of games with a success rate of about 80%, however these disk copies can only be read in any way by the Super Disk itself. Any attempt to read these disks in a Windows or DOS machine results in a message saying no disk was detected or the disk is unformatted. If a disk is formatted in a Windows machine it can be written to by the Super Disk, however this results in the same error messages.

As pictured I have a 9V power supply as recommended by the manual. Using this supply removes any flickering when the floppy disk drive's stepper motor is active. At one point, with help from the 9V supply, I was able to make 2 disk copies that Windows was able to recognize and read off of. I never changed my method for making these disks, as it seems the stars just aligned.

When attempting to write disks for use in the Super Disk the results were seemingly random. Most attempts resulted in a completely unrecognized disk, some attempts were recognized but only made it about 40% through the loading process.

On a side note does anyone know about upgrading the ram on these units? There is 32mb on board with 2 unpopulated DRAM areas on the board. The software and manual also both make mention of up to 128mb of DRAM, however I have only ever seen mention of the green version of my unit with 64mb.

Another feature mentioned is PC link. From the one image I found it appears that a parallel card can be inserted in the cartridge slot to allow for use of a disc drive enclosure and PC link. I was wondering if another copier's parallel card could be used in place of the Gamars accessory.

As pictured the only modifications made to this unit was the removal of a leaking battery, the replacement of a blown cap (failed mid way through some of my testing) and the addition of the matsushita floppy disk drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

https://imgur.com/a/MXxjmA7

https://imgur.com/a/LxWdmu1

https://imgur.com/a/4zhkL0j

https://imgur.com/a/MDJFbdJ

https://imgur.com/a/GAi3QSh

https://imgur.com/a/H7YXVVW
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Mystic_Merlin



Joined: 15 Oct 2007
Posts: 496
Location: Bangkok

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:46 am    Post subject: Re: Gamars Super Disk FC-301 disk drive failure Reply with quote

TDXIII wrote:
A few years ago I picked up this Super Disk cheap as it had a failed floppy disk drive.

After I tested it I confirmed that the drive had failed. However after replacing the drive, with a old Matsushita floppy drive I had lying around, the Super Disk has never quite worked right.

The Super Disk can make copies of games with a success rate of about 80%, however these disk copies can only be read in any way by the Super Disk itself. Any attempt to read these disks in a Windows or DOS machine results in a message saying no disk was detected or the disk is unformatted. If a disk is formatted in a Windows machine it can be written to by the Super Disk, however this results in the same error messages.

As pictured I have a 9V power supply as recommended by the manual. Using this supply removes any flickering when the floppy disk drive's stepper motor is active. At one point, with help from the 9V supply, I was able to make 2 disk copies that Windows was able to recognize and read off of. I never changed my method for making these disks, as it seems the stars just aligned.

When attempting to write disks for use in the Super Disk the results were seemingly random. Most attempts resulted in a completely unrecognized disk, some attempts were recognized but only made it about 40% through the loading process.

On a side note does anyone know about upgrading the ram on these units? There is 32mb on board with 2 unpopulated DRAM areas on the board. The software and manual also both make mention of up to 128mb of DRAM, however I have only ever seen mention of the green version of my unit with 64mb.

Another feature mentioned is PC link. From the one image I found it appears that a parallel card can be inserted in the cartridge slot to allow for use of a disc drive enclosure and PC link. I was wondering if another copier's parallel card could be used in place of the Gamars accessory.

As pictured the only modifications made to this unit was the removal of a leaking battery, the replacement of a blown cap (failed mid way through some of my testing) and the addition of the matsushita floppy disk drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

https://imgur.com/a/MXxjmA7

https://imgur.com/a/LxWdmu1

https://imgur.com/a/4zhkL0j

https://imgur.com/a/MDJFbdJ

https://imgur.com/a/GAi3QSh

https://imgur.com/a/H7YXVVW


What you described sounds like a head alignment issue on the FDD. Do you have another drive to test?
Regarding the power supply, you need to use a center negative one, preferably linear and not switch mode, a MD1 psu works the best.
But I'd recommend to test actually without any psu as the Gamars draws power from the console. If the SNES psu is 1.2A or more it should handle both units.
If all fail you might have a defective FDD disk controller (the goldstar IC) or some of the track between this IC and the IDC connector might be damaged by the leak.

Regarding the ram upgrade, your board seems upgradeable to 64M

No you can't use any parallel port card for transfer has it as custom logic and honestly I haven't seen any for this model even though it should exist...somewhere in Taiwan
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